by Gerri Hill
“Again, there’s only a theory,” she said. “I’m the first person to get this far in that’s not a local.”
“What’s the theory?” Dana asked.
“Electromagnetic pulse of some sort.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I said it was a theory,” she reminded Dana. “I’m trying to find the helicopter first. Then the meteor.”
“One person? They send in one person? A woman?”
She looked at Butch. “You got something against women?”
“I mean…why not send in troops? People are—”
“Already paranoid,” she said. “Like Richard. What do you think would happen if a couple of platoons of soldiers marched in?”
“Are we even on the news? Does anybody know?” Dana asked.
She shook her head. “No. They’ve got the highway down south blocked off so no one’s coming in the area. They’re trying to determine how large the zone is.”
“Why is the military being so secretive if it’s only a meteor?” Dana asked.
“Because someone jumped the gun and sent up a helicopter which then crashed,” she said.
Butch nodded. “Because this someone didn’t think it was a meteor, did they? They thought it was a—”
“A hostile aircraft.”
“And you’re sure it’s not?” Dana asked.
Corey held her gaze. “We’re sure.”
Dana shook her head. “Okay, still—and maybe I’m too naive—but none of this makes sense. So it’s a meteor? What’s the big deal? You’ve got hundreds of people out here without power, without phones. Why isn’t someone trying to help us?”
“The loss of a military aircraft and crew in a situation like this…well, it’s complicated,” Corey said.
“So the military is more worried about bad press than they are the wellbeing of us?”
“We have a missing helicopter and three crew members. That’s my only concern,” she said bluntly. “Whatever hardship you’ve had because you don’t have your cell phone is secondary, I assure you.”
Dana squared her shoulders. “I don’t think I like you very much.”
Corey shrugged. “I don’t really care.” She turned to Butch. “I need you to take me to Squaw Valley. I need to find these men who went after the helicopter. The sooner we find it, the sooner help will come.”
“And if I refuse?”
“I need your help. And I need you to trust me.” She looked over at Dana. “I’m not the bad guy here.”
Butch finally nodded. “Okay, Captain Conaway. Against my better judgment, I’ll take you to Squaw Valley.”
“Thank you.” She again glanced at Dana. “You should probably stay here. You can—”
“The hell I am,” Dana said. “You’re not leaving me here with that crazy man and his rifle.”
Corey opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. She hadn’t known Dana long, but long enough to know she sported a defiant, stubborn streak. They didn’t have time to argue. They needed to get going.
“Okay. Let’s see if we can get some supplies from Anna Gail’s store. Butch? Can you do that for us?”
“Yeah.”
“Tell her we’re following the creek south like you wanted to. Nothing else. And whatever you do, don’t tell Richard a goddamn thing.”
“Right.” He paused. “This is probably a silly question….but are you armed?”
Corey lifted one corner of her mouth in a smile. “Yeah…silly question.”
Chapter Twenty
Hal knew there was another good hour or more of daylight left, but his back was hurting him so much, he wasn’t sure he could take another minute in the saddle, much less an hour. He pulled Daisy to a stop.
“I’m about done for the day,” he said.
Jim looked behind them, like he’d been doing since they’d left Baker’s Ridge. Hal wasn’t sure if he was expecting someone to be chasing them or if he expected Carl or Dusty to show up.
Graham was the first one off his horse. “When I get back home, I may never get on a horse again.”
Curtis, too, looked behind them. “I think we should push on,” he said nervously. “Hell, we can still see the ridge from here. We’re probably only three hours from the canyon.”
“If we push on, then we’ll leave the creek,” Hal said. “That’ll put us up on that Jeep road overnight. No water.”
“At least we’ll be closer to Paradox,” Jim said. “We’ve got to get some help. Let someone know what happened.”
“We don’t even know what happened ourselves,” Graham said.
Hal held on to Daisy while he got his legs under him. Screaming pain in his back nearly made his eyes water. He finally pushed it aside and straightened up.
“We’ll get to Paradox tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll find the sheriff, hopefully, and let him handle it. We’ll tell him what we saw and let him take care of it. I need to get back to Jean. I can’t expect her to take care of all the chores much longer.”
“We all want to get home, Hal,” Curtis said as he dismounted too.
The spring grass was thick along the creek and they let all six horses graze. The young cottonwood trees were thick here, but the few scrub oaks didn’t offer much in the way of firewood.
By the time they had camp set up and collected what measly firewood they could find, evening was approaching. Conversation was sparse when they bothered to talk at all. They ate the last of Dusty’s elk jerky in near silence. Again, Hal wished he was home with Jean, eating his evening meal with her. A nice cold glass of milk would hit the spot right about now too. He looked up into the sky, seeing the twinkling of stars as darkness was beginning to envelop them. He looked to the east, thankful to see the moon. It wasn’t much more than the sliver it had been the night before, but at least it was there. It might cast a little light on them tonight.
“What do you think happened?” Jim asked, his voice low and quiet.
“I’m afraid to think about it,” Graham said, his voice equally as quiet.
“What are we going to tell their wives? I mean, we just left them there,” Jim said. “What are we going to say?”
“We told them not to go down there in the ravine,” Hal said. “We told them not to open that damn door. It was like they were…possessed or something.”
Curtis nodded. “Yeah. Possessed. Like they weren’t even hearing us.” He leaned forward, adding another small branch to their meager fire. “It was most likely something awful, though.”
“You think that was some kind of…of a spaceship or something?” Jim asked.
“It wasn’t no spaceship,” Curtis said sharply. “This ain’t some damn movie.”
“Then what? There was a door,” Graham said. “Something grabbed Dusty. Jerked him in like he weighed nothin’ more than a little sack of flour.”
“Something grabbed Carl too,” Jim said. “I saw this…this arm or something.” He covered both ears with his hands. “I can’t get his scream out of my head. It was like he was seeing a monster or…or worse.”
Hal wondered what would be worse than a monster. He could still hear Carl’s scream too, even though he’d tried all afternoon to push it from his mind. They were a bunch of old cowards for leaving them there and that’s a regret he’d take to his grave. But after seeing what happened, after hearing Carl’s wild scream, there was no way in hell he was going after them.
“Not sure I’m going to be able to sleep tonight,” Graham said. “I got this weird feeling.”
“What kinda feeling?” Curtis asked.
“Like we’re being watched…like we’re not alone.”
“Come on, Graham,” Jim said with a shaky laugh. “You tryin’ to scare me more than I already am?”
“I’m serious.”
“I thought I heard some rocks tumblin’ earlier,” Curtis said.
“You got the horses tied up good?” Hal asked. “Maybe they was kickin’ rocks around.”
“Maybe so.
”
After a while, Jim spoke again, his voice low and quiet like before. “Seems awful dark tonight, don’t it?”
“Clouds are moving in,” Curtis said. “Not many stars out anymore.”
Hal looked up, searching for the little sliver of moon he’d seen earlier. The sky was black dark.
“Wind’s pickin’ up too,” Graham noted. “Hope we don’t get a storm tonight.”
Hal was about to suggest they put out the fire and go on to bed, but he doubted he’d get any sleep. Anyway, the fire was their only light. He wasn’t in a hurry to have the world plunged into total darkness just yet. So he picked up one of the few remaining twigs and tossed it on top of the flames. No need to be in a hurry to put the fire out. They didn’t have enough wood to last another half hour.
They huddled around the fire as close as they could get, watching as the flame flickered, eating at the last of the wood. A high-pitched barking howl downstream made Hal’s old heart jump in his chest. Yaps and chortles followed. It was a sound Hal had heard his whole life—coyotes—yet tonight, it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“Sounds like quite a few of them,” Curtis said unnecessarily.
“I wish we had more wood,” Jim said for the second time. “I ain’t relishing this thing going out.”
“I don’t reckon any of us are,” Hal said.
He suddenly agreed with Graham’s earlier statement. He, too, felt like they were being watched…like they weren’t alone. He jerked his head around as he heard a rustle behind the scrub brush. He listened but heard nothing else.
“Something ain’t right,” Jim murmured in a near whisper. “If we had any moon at all, I’d have half a mind to saddle up and head out.”
“Maybe we should have pushed on,” Graham said.
At that moment, now that his back wasn’t aching quite as much, Hal was thinking that very thing. It was going to be an endless night, most likely.
Another sound behind the brush, rocks scraping together, and all four of them turned to stare. Out of the shadows, a shape materialized and Hal only barely stifled his scream. They all jumped to their feet…well, as fast as seventy-five-year-old men could.
“Carl?”
“What the hell happened?” Curtis asked as he hurried over to him.
Carl said nothing, he simply stood there looking at them. There wasn’t enough light left from the flickering fire to make out his features, but Hal saw—or imagined he saw—blood on Carl’s shirt.
“Come by the fire,” Curtis said, tugging him closer. “What’s left of it, anyway. We’re out of wood.”
“How did you get here so fast?” Graham asked.
“Ran.”
“What about Dusty?”
Carl turned his head slowly toward Jim. “Who?”
Hal frowned. His voice…while it sounded like Carl…it didn’t quite sound like Carl. And what did he mean, he ran? Most likely Carl hadn’t run in thirty years or more. Those pencil-thin legs of his would have snapped like a twig if he’d run. He was about to ask him just that when Carl reached out suddenly and grabbed Graham and Curtis at the same time, slamming their heads together with such force, Hal heard their skulls crack like plates of cheap china and they fell lifeless to the ground. Before anyone could react, Carl reached for Jim. Hal didn’t wait, he turned and ran toward the creek, to where the horses were tied. Jim’s scream was cut off immediately and Hal ran blindly, not daring to think of what Carl had possibly done to Jim.
When he reached the horses, they danced around him. They weren’t saddled but with his adrenaline pumping, Hal grabbed the mane of one and tried to pull himself up. He heard movement behind him but what little courage he still clung to wouldn’t allow him to look. His attempt to mount the horse, however, was futile.
He finally turned, seeing Carl approaching him. He held his hands up defensively.
“We didn’t want to leave you behind, Carl. But what…what could we do? We didn’t know—”
Carl tilted his head, much like Lucky did when Hal talked to him. He heard the words but he didn’t understand them.
Hal didn’t wait another second longer. He bolted into the creek as fast as his shaky legs would take him. As his foot caught a rock and he felt himself falling, he thought he heard dark laughter coming from behind him. Soaking wet, he scrambled to his feet, expecting to feel hands grab him at any moment. He was surprised when he made it to the other side of the creek unharmed.
“Stop.”
He jumped, shocked that Carl was standing beside him. How had he made it across so fast?
He didn’t have time for the question—and answer—to register. He didn’t even have time to scream.
Chapter Twenty-One
Dana pulled her gaze from Corey, who was neatly refolding her tent, and glanced at Butch.
“I’m not quite sure what to make of her,” she said quietly.
Butch tossed out the last of his coffee. “I thought she fit your sporty Dream Girl image,” he said with a smile.
“Oh, she does. Perfectly, in fact. But maybe I was a bit overzealous when I said I liked strong, independent women.” She sighed. “She is cute. But she kinda makes me nervous.”
“She makes me nervous too. You know, I go for the more mild-mannered, submissive women.”
“Like Holly?”
Butch shrugged. “Holly’s just Holly. She doesn’t have much ambition. I blame her parents.”
“Why?”
“She’s the baby. They catered to her, much like my parents did to Tony.”
“Well, I can’t really see the two of you together,” she said. “There didn’t appear to be any chemistry between you.” She leaned closer, keeping her voice low. “You were having sex, right?” She was surprised by the blush that lit Butch’s face.
“Well…the one time.”
Dana’s eyes widened. “She was a virgin?”
He nodded. “And it didn’t go well. Since then, we don’t do much more than kiss and make out a little bit.”
“Jesus, you’re lucky she didn’t get pregnant.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not stupid, you know.”
Corey tossed down her pack, then squatted beside the fire and poured coffee into a cup. She shook the pot and Dana heard the sloshing of the liquid inside.
“Not much left,” Corey said. “Anyone want more?”
“I’m good,” Butch said.
Dana shook her head. She wasn’t much for camp coffee. She sighed, missing her morning trips to the Starbucks near her office. What would she have today? She closed her eyes for a moment. Oh…a Caramel Macchiato sounded good. Or maybe a Vanilla Latte. She hadn’t had one of those in a while.
“How long do you think it’ll take?” Corey asked.
“We should be in the valley in less than two hours,” Butch said. “We’ll make better time following the road.” He motioned to the creek. “I thought it was safer to follow the water yesterday. Makes for better camping too.”
Corey took the coffeepot and emptied it, then went to the creek to rinse it out. Butch stood and helped Dana to her feet.
“Guess it’s time to head out.”
Dana sighed yet again, her pleasant memories of Starbucks coffee fading from her mind. Time to get back on the horse. Another day in the saddle. Another day with that woman riding behind her.
While she found Corey nice enough…Captain Conaway, she mentally corrected…their time on the horse was mostly spent in silence. And even though in her mind her Dream Girl was the strong, silent type, she decided she preferred a little more conversation. She smiled to herself. Not that Corey Conaway was actually her Dream Girl. She was a little too aloof for that. She now knew that the friendliness Corey had shown when they’d first met her had been forced. Since her revelation, well, she was all business now.
“How about I take the saddle today and you ride in the back?”
Dana stared at her blankly. “Huh?”
Corey took a step clos
er. “I said, I’ll take the saddle today. You ride in back.”
Dana looked over at their horse. Riding on the back of the saddle didn’t look all that safe. Not that Gretchen wasn’t gentle, she was just big and tall. Dana was a little intimidated by her and she would miss having the security of the saddle.
“You can hold on to me,” Corey said, as if reading her mind.
Dana had no time to protest as Corey had already put her foot in the stirrup and had swung up onto the saddle.
“Guess I’m riding in the back,” she murmured.
“Toss me your pack,” Butch said.
He had taken to hauling all three of their packs since he didn’t have an extra passenger with him. She handed hers over to him, then stood beside Gretchen…and Captain Conaway. Corey kicked her boot out of the stirrup, freeing it for Dana. She wasn’t sure what to use to pull herself up. When Corey rode on the back, she used the front of the saddle as leverage. Dana was a little shorter than she was and didn’t feel strong enough.
Corey held her hand out. “I’ll pull you up,” she offered.
Without thinking, Dana grabbed Corey’s forearm and Corey did the same. Their eyes met for a second or two, then Dana felt herself being pulled up. She swung her leg over and behind the saddle, grabbing onto Corey’s waist to steady herself.
“Okay?”
“Doesn’t feel very secure back here,” she said.
“Like I said…feel free to hold on to me.”
A gentle kick put Gretchen in motion, and Dana nearly fell off the back of her. She wrapped her arms around Corey’s waist and pulled herself closer. She could feel Corey’s quiet laughter against her hands.
“That was mean,” she said.
“Yeah, it was. Sorry.”
Dana loosened her grip as she got used to the slow, even gait of the horse. Still, she kept her hands on Corey’s waist, right above her hips…just in case, she told herself.
They rode on in silence, following behind Butch as he skirted the creek. They were still technically in the canyon, Dana thought, as the rocky wall jutted up to their right, but the grass was a little thicker here, a little greener. The trees had changed too, she noted, as a few pines had taken hold as the canyon slowly gave way to the valley. Before long, Butch headed up, and Dana assumed it was to hook up with the road.